October, 27, 2022: Research Seminar of the Department of Political Science and International Affairs with the Participation of Elvin Ong, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the National University of Singapore

The next Research Seminar of the Department of Political Science and International Affairs will be held on Thursday, October 27, 2022 at 12.00 Saint-Petersburg time / 17.00 Singapore time.

Speaker: Elvin Ong, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the National University of Singapore

Title:   Opposing Power. Building Opposition Alliances in Electoral Autocracies

Elving Ong will present his new book, Opposing Power, which argues that perceptions of regime vulnerability and mutual dependency by opposition elites shape the building of opposition alliances. When electoral autocracies are consistently dominant, opposition parties eschew fully fledged alliances. At best, they allocate only one candidate to contest against the incumbent in each subnational electoral district to avoid splitting the opposition vote. However, when multiple regime-debilitating events strike within a short period of time, thus pushing an incumbent to the precipice of power, opposition elites expect victory, accepting costly compromises to build alliances and seize power. Opposing Power shows how oppositions build these alliances through case study comparisons in East and Southeast Asia—between the Philippines and South Korea in the late 1980s, and between Malaysia and Singapore from 1965 to 2020.

Zoom link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89621277322?pwd=TlJXQ1VleDRlamR2akVQNmRrZG96dz09

Conference ID: 896 2127 7322

Access code: 558059